New Guy to this site need some assistance.

[firelion]

Hello everyone, new guy here, not really new to the game. LONG story short, I've decided to cease weight lifting and I've sold my home gym. The wear on my body and with some new babies in the house make me see family is so much more important. Instead I've been doing just push ups, situps, pull ups, and I bought a precor elliptical trainer. Now, here is my deal, I've always been a thick guy. I'm 5'8" 219lbs cold, but my BF% is now at 21%. I have always been able to just lift and burn off fat, never really did cardio much and ate to get big. Well, I find myself in my mid 30's with way too much fat, and I'm having a VERY hard time losing it. I know how to eat to gain muscle, but I realize eating to lose fat and maintain muscle is very hard for me and my body and mind and I never have had to think that way until now. I can't seem to get it going. I've gotten rid of all my old gear and am clean, no stims or any other supps. I get protein thru meals and 1 shake a day.

SO, after all that any feedback? I'm very confused about cardio for the long duration or for short blasts to lose fat, and early morning cardio is almost out of the question unless it's a short duration thing. I've checked a few other sites and guy just push their books or to take some gear. Gear won't make u lose fat so don't even suggest that please.

My goal is to get to 185 and I'll be happy. You'd think I would have all the answers by now but I guess not so thank you in advance for any helpful suggestions.

 

[mike507]

Ok well im only 17 almost 18 but i know quite a bit about some of this...i'm no expert but I know some basic stuff ...Well any cardio in the morning is better than none at all...when you wake up drink 16-24 oz of ice cold water and hop on the elliptical for the time that you have available because when you do cardio in the morning with no food in your system yet you burn 300% more than you would if you went to the gym after eating.. (just what I have read in quite a few places) because there are no carbohydrates in your system so your body has to go straight to the source (fat) to burn for energy, And the ice cold water burns a few calories itself since it has to heat the body up.

Once again I am no expert or anything close haha so if anyone else has any corrections for what I said lemme know
and hope this helps you out atleast a lil bro

Mike

 

[firelion]

Ok well im only 17 almost 18 but i know quite a bit about some of this...i'm no expert but I know some basic stuff ...Well any cardio in the morning is better than none at all...when you wake up drink 16-24 oz of ice cold water and hop on the elliptical for the time that you have available because when you do cardio in the morning with no food in your system yet you burn 300% more than you would if you went to the gym after eating.. (just what I have read in quite a few places) because there are no carbohydrates in your system so your body has to go straight to the source (fat) to burn for energy, And the ice cold water burns a few calories itself since it has to heat the body up.

Once again I am no expert or anything close haha so if anyone else has any corrections for what I said lemme know
and hope this helps you out atleast a lil bro

Mike

Hey man thanks for your reply. I have read that as well, I'm just wondering if they are including sugars in the carbs or if they have to be burned off before you get to the stored fat? By sugars I mean those stored in your body(muscles).

Thanks for the reply. It's very confusing when I search on here and other sites about which is better for burning fat. HIT or just long steady stuff. I guess both are good for the heart though huh? Thanks bro.

 

[mike507]

Yeah I know exactly what you mean...I'm not too sure about the whole which type of sugar thing your talking about...but i would think that HIT would be better since you said you didn't have that much time in the morning.

 

[Rodja]

Never do HIIT on an empty stomach; it is counter productive and leads to catabolism. Drink about 15g of BCAAs before/during if you want to do HIIT in the morning.

It is much, much harder to lose weight by only doing cardio because it generally does not have the same effect on nutrient repartitioning as weight training.

 

[firelion]

Never do HIIT on an empty stomach; it is counter productive and leads to catabolism. Drink about 15g of BCAAs before/during if you want to do HIIT in the morning.

It is much, much harder to lose weight by only doing cardio because it generally does not have the same effect on nutrient repartitioning as weight training.

I have heard this about fat loss without some sort of resistance excercise being incorporated notbeing as effective. I reasoned that while concentrating on cardio and improved diet catered to fat loss, my resistance would be body weight movements only such as pull ups, situps, etc. Do you feel this is not enough resistance?

 

[firelion]

So after doing some searching, I've run into a few conclusions and some questions as well. I see I need to keep my meals at about 6 or 7 just like for mass, just the meal itself is changed. I'll try and taper off the carbs as the day progresses. I can only usually work out later in the day (around 7 or so) so how would that affect my after workout meal to try and drop just fat? Fast sugars?

Also, I'm trying to find out if the resistance training I am doing (push ups, situps, etc no weights other than body weight) are sufficient to maintain muscle mass and still lose fat. Thats where I get some conflicting info. Anyone have any feedback on that?

Thanks for the guys that posted and anyone else that does in the future. More searching to do!